Virtues of Harmony

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Virtues of Harmony (皆大歡喜)
Virtues of Harmony Poster
Genre	Ancient Sitcom
Starring	Nancy Sit Frankie Lam Bondy Chiu Michael Tse Cutie Mui Bernice Liu
Opening theme	"皆大歡喜" by Nancy Sit
Ending theme	"心事有誰知" by Nancy Sit
Country of origin	Hong Kong
Language(s)	Cantonese
No. of episodes	322
Production
Running time	approx. 20 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Television Broadcasts Limited
Original run	September 17, 2001 – December, 2002
Chronology
Followed by	Virtues of Harmony 2
External links
Official website

Virtues of Harmony (Traditional Chinese 皆大歡喜, (Gai Dai Foon Hei) was a sitcom produced by TVB. It starred Nancy Sit, Frankie Lam, Bondy Chiu, Michael Tse, Cutie Mui, Bernice Liu, Joyce Chen, Yvonne Lam, Johnny Tang, Louis Yuen, etc. There are 770 episodes altogether in two series and it ran from 2001 until its conclusion in February, 2005.

[edit] Virtues of Harmony I

The first season of Virtues of Harmony is a 327 episode costumed TV drama comedy. The plot goes through the lives and stories of these characters. It is a very family oriented show with a series of highly comedic moments intertwined with light drama.

The writers of the show used many Cantonese homophones that have different meanings in modern time. Since the story is set in an era centuries ago, the modern puns make the dialogues rather funny. For example, the restaurant run by the family is called Dong Mud Yuen (洞蜜園 lit. honey cave garden), but the homophone is a Cantonese pun for "zoo" (動物園). The town they live in Tsi Lik Gong Zhen(池力共鎮) is a homophone for magnetic resonance (磁力共振). Even the names of the characters are homophones of some other funny puns. For example, Gam Fu Yan's three children are named "Gam Nien", "Gam Yuet", and "Gam Yat"; while the character for Gam means gold, it sounds identical to another character that when used with characters for year (nien), moon or month (yuet), and sun or day (yat), the three characters' names mean "this year", "this month", and "today". Most of this humour is lost when the show is viewed by non-Cantonese speaking audience.

[edit] Plot

The sitcom is set during the prosperous Ming dynasty and centers around the Gam family. Nancy Sit stars as Gam Nim Tsi, head of the Gam household. Gam Nim Tsi was once a notorious bandit but when the sitcom starts nobody is aware of her past, not even her children (step-children). As the sitcom begins, Gam Nim Tsi is the owner of the most popular restaurant in the village, named 'Dong Mud Yuen'.

Dong Mud Yuen is famous for its noodles which are cooked by Nim Tsi’s stepbrother, Yau Nim Fu (played by Louis Yuen). Only Yau Nim Fu knows Gam Fu Yan’s past as a bandit and how she came into the family. Yau Nim Fu is married to Wan Ying Gei (played by Yvonne Lam).

Gam Nim Tsi has three children, who are actually her stepchildren. They are triplets named; Gam Nien (played by Frankie Lam), Gam Yuet (played by Michael Tse), and Gam Yat (played by Joyce Chen).

Gam Yuet (Michael) is married to two women, Sek Mei (played by Cutie Mui) and Lam Yuk Lou (played by Bondy Chui). Not long into the sitcom, Gam Yat (Joyce) marries Gou Yee Hong (played by Johnny Tang). Eventually, Gam Nien (Frankie) marries Princess Sum Tien (played by Bernice Liu). Also After That they move into the kingdom to live with the princess and her father, the King. Gam Nien ( Frankie) has some marital problems at first with princess Sum Tien ( played by Bernice Liu.)